Wedding Sites
Check out local parks (visit the website for the city to get locations) - particulary Millpoint Park in Hampton. As I seem to recall, it would be a really nice spot for a fall ceremony.
Another nice park is Sandy Bottom Nature Park which located at the corner of Harpersville Rd and Hampton Roads Center Parkway across from the AMC 24 (ARGH! I can't believe I forgot the name!). It's really pretty, on a lake, centrally located and there's a decent amount of parking.
Williamsburg has a cute little park/area called Bicentennial Park off of South Henry street and located two or three blocks down from Duke of Gloucester street. Depending on how many guests you have, that would also be a nice area for a wedding.
It's a shame you can't depend on the weather because Buckroe would also be a beautiful spot for an early fall outdoor wedding and there is a pavilion you can reserve/rent.
Oh, what about the area around the Mariner's Museum? I don't know what's over there but it might be worth exploring.
Or perhaps, somewhere off the Colonial Parkway - again, depending on the size of the party/number of guests. There are a few spots that over look the York River that would be GORGEOUS!
Wedding Cake and Food
Try to avoid the fancy tiered cake and go with a nice sheet cake appropriately decorated (Food Lion, Farm Fresh, Sam's, etc.) Costco does a GORGEOUS one covered and decorated in an ivory-colored frosting that is sinfully delicious (had a sample one day). I'm going to use for my reception. I have no idea how much it costs but if it's less than $75 and feeds 50, I'll be happy. I'll decorate the cake with silk flowers and a cake topper that I'll make myself.
Cater it yourself. Depending on the time of day, you can get away with hors'douvers (sp?). If you can rent a hall with a kitchen you can use, (Seaford Yacht Club has something like this), you can get a number of frozen stuff (bacon wrapped scallops, mini egg-rolls, mini quiches, coconut shrimp, etc.) that you just heat and eat. That will cut on the down on the reception costs.
Oh - and forget serving alcohol. That will shot the tab up WAY fast. I'm going to skip the champagne and serve sparkling cider at my reception.
DIY Projects
* for a cake topper, a really cool idea I've seen lately is using the initals of the bridal couple or just the inital of the last name, the initial(s) is made out of a light-weight wood, and glass beads/jewels are glued onto the initial.
* print your own invitations/programs - you can get invite kits at places like Office Depot and Walmart and you can find wording and fancy (free) fonts on the web.
* favors - there are ideas on the web for wedding favors.
Walmart (of all places) has a number of favors and other wedding-stuff for a really good price.
eBay, CraigsList, and maybe local for-sale/trade grousp for other stuff you may need - invitations, silk flowers, favors, decorations, dresses, etc.
Join wedding message boards for other ideas and ways of cutting costs.
Links to check out:
http://www.diyweddingkits.com/
http://weddings.about.com/od/bridesandg
http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/cr_weddin
http://forums.weddingsolutions.com/
http://boards.weddingchannel.com/
http://www.brides.com/forums/index.j
http://community.theknot.com/cs/ks/comm
http://www.topweddinglinks.com/cgi-b
